The shared goals of 2011...

I've been reading quite a number of blog posts from various indie developers (@karnakgames@rizergames both from #iDevBlogADay etc.) about their goals for this year, and there seem to be a lot of shared goals across the community.

Release more games

Finishing games and actually releasing them is important. Actually having a set goal is even more important - otherwise how will you know if you've succeeded. We haven't yet planned out our development/release goals for the year, but as soon as we do we'll make sure we put it out there.

This also ties in to another oft-stated goal...

Make a living on our own games

The "holy grail" of indie development - making enough money to live off your creations instead of relying on outside work to pay the bills. It's a good goal - one we've shared and continue to reach for on a yearly basis.

So...this year...let's see what we can do to make this happen. Not just us @mutekicorp but all of us as a community.

Attend more conferences

I think it's quite telling of the indie community that most people in the community share the goal of meeting even more people from our community. We're planning on getting out a lot more this year, so we hope to see you all out there!

So then that begs the question...

How do we do all this?!?

That comes from leaning on each other. Be open with plans and goals. Tell the community what you're wanting to do, let others tell what they want to do. And then hold each other accountable. Prop each other up, stay in touch with the community, and don't give up. Peer pressure, external motivation, call it what you will, but it WORKS.

If we don't let each other give up, and we offer that motivation, encouragement, and help each other then the whole indie community benefits, and at least some of us will reach those goals this year...for the rest we'll all hopefully be closer to reaching them next year.